Pre-exam is a test of decision making, and requires more of memorization. In order to be confident of writing the main(w) exam, you need to be sure of a comfortable margin between your expected score and the expected cut-off in your category. Only then can you be firm in planning your time between pre and main(w) exam, if this is your first attempt. And main(w) exam is all that matters. At least for me it did.

The booklist for pre exam is easily available on a simple Google search. Importance of studying Laxmikanth, Bipin Chandra, NCERTs, current affairs and the like can’t be emphasized more. I stuck to these basic books and got a very comfortable score in CSE 2016 pre exam. You will need lot of practice in a simulated environment to clear pre exam. I had joined online test series and that helped me revise important topics several times.

Always remember, anything that you haven’t revised a couple of times before the exam is as good as you not having read it. You won’t recall it later.

Paper 1 for pre-exam is based on facts mostly. Syllabus is well defined. If you’re not reading it from basic books yourself, chances are you’ll miss the train to writing the main(w) exam. Many students, unfortunately, hunt for short notes, gists of magazines etc few weeks before the exam. I made my own short notes, and revised them multiple times. See, you should always write the exam when you’re on your peak. The peak is reached when you’re getting 120+ in test series(s), you aren’t making silly mistakes, you’re thorough with NCERTs etc.

While in exam hall, there will be questions that will need to be solved based on tricks. For example, if I know Nashik isn’t on the Malwa Plateau – all options suggesting so are wrong and hence I can quickly arrive at my answer. The climate change fund transfer as agreed upon by developed countries was $100 billion, if an option mentions it as $1000 billion, it’s wrong. [These examples are taken from CSE 2016 pre exam, sorry if you can’t relate to them].

Then some people call it luck based. I have only one line for them: don’t go to a temple to pray, if you’re an atheist. Nobody forced (or should) you to write this exam. If you’re here, you’ve to play by the general rules.

So, how many days are sufficient for preparing for the exam?

I have a simple answer for this question. The government conducts the exam every year. This is the time required – one year. If it wasn’t the case, the exams would be held every alternate year.

If you can use your faculty in an efficient way, you can prepare and clear the exam in one year. I did it. Many others have done it. Can you? Now, I take your attention to the quote I had written in the starting, those who think they can, and those who think they can’t are both usually right. You’re your own best judge. Confidence is the key here.

Some Important details that need mention:

Now I shall be as honest as possible. I used to study for around 12 hours a day, every day! Consistency is the key.This included newspaper reading & making notes out of it (yes, I made my own notes from December 2015 to May 2016), reading optional & making notes out of it (I did self study for optional as well), reading GS for upcoming mock tests.

I gave even mocks after revising the syllabus. This helped me memorize books like NCERTs, TN history, GC Leong, Laxmikanth – all by heart. I still have a pictographic memory of all of them. It helps. The scores in the beginning were like 59/200, 60s/200. 90s/200. But in 2-month’s time I was building up the tempo. I thought I was late (considering many people join coaching a year before the exam, many take the exam to improve their AIR, several others may have better grasping skills).

But I now realize 6-8 months time is more than sufficient before pre. If you aren’t able to finish the required syllabus in this time, few things can be inferred. You’re not reading relevant books, you’re idling around, perhaps you’ve weak memory (and I don’t think almond helps), or you’re just not in the mood maybe?

I was done with my pre syllabus by end of May 2016. I had also made notes for Sociology for almost 70 per cent of the syllabus (to those coaching institutes who promise to finish syllabus in 3 months time, I have only thing to say: please don’t cheat the innocent). I now decided that I must revise and start taking full syllabus tests. In hindsight, the revisions made all the difference. I stopped studying Sociology and just revised all what I had read.

Right after the exam, I knew I will get through. I matched answer keys and was comfortably scoring 140+, so I knew I was on the right track. Take some time and try to visualize my situation here. I stayed in the UPSC hub yet never took coaching, had just read online success stories*, and had attempted online test series. To me this was big.[* this fact has motivated me to write this piece, what if someone somewhere takes motivation and finally clears the exam just by self study? I will consider time spent in writing this article as a good investment]

The next write-up will be on main(w) exam.

Happy Independence Day to all.

Until next time,

– Saurabh Dixit, AIR 162

(“ForumIAS is the best platform to help students in today’s era”, says the UPSC Topper)

Note: This is Part-2 of the series of write-up on UPSC CSE preparation by Saurabh Dixit. Part-3 on mains preparation to come soon.

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Midhun

your article inspires many candidates.. thanks

The_firewithin

What’s his booklist..?

aditya bahety

We need a write up about your sociology preparation as well ….it will be of immense help for all students who are not taking coaching for sociology ! Thanks in advance !

ForumIAS

We will ask him. Thanks. Did you like the write-up?

aditya bahety

Absolutely ! Its one of the most helpful and practical articles i have ever read ! And the biggest factor here is clearing the exam without coaching !(even for optional)

ForumIAS

Yes, that is true.

Messi@10

Yes need sociology strategy

Dixit

Working on it

aditya bahety

Thanks ! Looking forward to it

knighted_lord

awesome article writing to the point no fake claims and very frank

ForumIAS

True that.

Sarkar

Hi Saurabh Thanks for your inputs!

One question – how much emphasis did you give to South Indian history details (Sangam Age) in TN History (class 11th)?

Did you memorize all the literature that was there? Do let me know!

Looking forward to your answer.

Dixit

See, I read what’s given in TN history (and it has a lot) I tried to remember special details, like if any literature pertained to society, or position of women, etc

I couldn’t memorize all the names friend, but you’ll be comfortable eliminating options in prelims, if you’ve just glanced through the names a couple of times

Hope I am clear..

Sarkar

oh yes, thanks a lot for your reply.

I will give it a re-read, because I found t difficult to make notes out of TN history, it is already so concise in note-form and still it has a lot to remember… (agreed 😀 )

Also, I am completely relying on 6-7th and 11-12th NCERT and TN Board in ancient and not reading RS Sharma. It still is huge with Art and culture (ncert and nitin sanghania)…

How much time should it ideally take to cover it all (including note-making)

Dixit

I made notes ONLY for optional, and some current affairs Books I like to read from source only… photographic memory, remember? Also, sometimes you see new things which you may have missed in first reading.. Don’t bother about the time spent 🙂

Sarkar

Okay… 🙂

The syllabus is huge and I end up missing my targets and test series

Hope it gets on track soon!

Your inputs are very very helpful 🙂

Congratulations for clearing the exam.

Keep writing and inspiring

Messi@10

Also need sociology prep strategy used by u.

ForumIAS

Sure, we will ask him.

Dixit

I am working with ForumIAS to publish it. Won’t disappoint you all 🙂

Shastri

Its great sir & pours dose of high confidence in oneself, I am also struggling a bit for prelims have joined classes & opting socio. Need further guidance of yours, it will be of great help if you can test mail me at somjeet.miher@gmail.com

DiamondMagnolia

So logically written, so honest! We are so grateful to Saurabh for taking time out to help out self studiers like us and to ForumIAS for hosting his articles. This is inspiring us to make his time investment worthwhile. I’m particularly impressed by his admission of memorizing the base books. So many people spew nonsense about just ‘understanding’ the matter but come on! How else will you recall points? There’s a difference between blind mugging up and memorizing indeed but let’s be real- revising 3-7 times is nothing but committing to memory.

ForumIAS

True that.

Dixit

Thanks You got it right! 🙂 All the best

Shastri

Thanks for sharing great inspiring inputs. How you developed that pictographic approach. Can you mail me at somjeet.miher@gmail.com Will be appearing for cse18, socio optional.

Shastri

What is difference between mugging & memorizing? How to better memorize?

DiamondMagnolia

mugging is byhearting without understanding or analysing topic. Thus mugged up info has less shelf life in brain. memorizing is committing to memory permanently- usually not possible unless information has been understood. better word would be internalization.

research on memorization has shown many techniques and that everyone has to use unique and different combinations of techniques. Therefore, you being a UPSC aspirant, I trust you have basic googling abilities and can find out, on your own, memorization methods and shortcuts. Since I don’t know your psychology, its impossible for me to tell you how to better memorize. It is a huge field of cognitive brain science in itself and will be interesting for you to discover.

You We Can

Not fair forum. :/ This article was meant to be for mains..:(

ForumIAS

Mains will be next. Tomorrow.

Aditya Negi

please ask him to share his pre+mains booklist as well

CSE 2018

Philosophy optional toppers should share their srategy.

want ur reflections…

thanx sir …ur words added strength to my selfstudy …thanx forum ias…

ForumIAS

Welcome.

Dixit

Happy to be of help

Md Faiyaz Ali

sir which test series u took??

knowledgegainer

Relly great sir, thanks a lot

Dixit

Happy that you liked it, all the best!

commongirl

Congratulations on your feat. Its evident you put in a lot of hard work. However, your tone seems arrogant and condescending about others who are also preparing diligently but haven’t been able to clear.

Its a fashion these days to say no coaching… Many aspirants dont go for coaching just because of extra money they have . Coaching is for guidance and those who dont have any guidance will need coaching. I hope all these no coaching wala toppers clearly mention who guided them, who checked their answers and essays etc. Congrats for ur achievement and thanks for ur guidance

Dixit

I was fortunate to have studied in a college which has given numerous civil servants to the country so far. We had several sessions on campus, where toppers used to share strategy, serving people shared the life after the exam.

Also, I got my essays checked by a friend, had joined a test series also for it, but didn’t continue for long. I read online blogs several times, and got an idea of how to prepare. However, when i was reading those blogs, I was only looking for things that were of relevance to me. Never felt anything for what people wrote about exam, coaching, stress during preparation, etc. I am a very calm person, hope you get it.. all the best 🙂

arrythmia

There are lot of guys who after getting into service have the attitude that they did everything by themselves without any guidance whatsoever. They have every right to say whatever they want. I call these fellows no coaching walas. There are another group of achievers who take effort to share the mental struggles they had and mistakes they made so that others would feel that all this is part of preparation. Their words have a soothing and motivating effect. They are the kind of people i would respect. Though experience is the best teacher as far as this exam is concerned, proper guidance will help us avoid mistakes and reach the goal faster. So next time when u say no coaching also share how u got guidance if u feel so. Thanks..:)